Between December 1996 and the beginning of March 1997, one of the worst outbreaks of communal violence in Indonesia in decades broke out in the province of West Kalimantan between indigenous Dayak people and immigrants from the island of Madura, off the coast of East Java. In the aftermath of a fight between Dayak and Madurese youths in a town called Sanggau Ledo, in which two Dayak youths were stabbed, the Dayaks waged what appeared to be a ritual war against Madurese communities, burning houses, killing inhabitants, and in some cases severing the heads and eating the livers of those killed. The death toll was probably about 500 by the time the killing ceased, appallingly high but still much lower than some early estimates of 2,000 or more; the Indonesian government has discouraged any effort to determine an accurate count. The majority of those killed were Madurese, but several dozen Dayaks died as well, some in revenge attacks by Madurese, most in clashes that took place when army units tried to stop Dayak war parties from reaching Madurese settlements. About 20,000 Madurese were displaced.
Indonesia: Communal Violence in West Kalimantan